In 2016, TakeRoot Justice (at the time the Community Development Project at Urban Justice Center) underwent a strategic planning process and reaffirmed its commitment to advancing racial justice. As part of this work, we established ways that we could more actively work with movements to increase police accountability, combat discriminatory policing, and support community-led campaigns for safety. Since then, we have planned our advocacy on existing work with grassroots groups around NYC, and the intersecting oppressions we have witnessed through our work with clients in these communities.
Holistic Abolition of Prisons and Police Everywhere Now (HAPPEN)
As militarization, incarceration, and policing continue to be the primary tools of state repression to uphold social, economic, and racial oppression, movements and the people that support them continue to resist and dismantle them. HAPPEN supports the work of movements and community-led campaigns to increase police accountability, combat discriminatory policing, and build community. Increasing our commitment to and capacity around policing issues and community safety builds on TakeRoot’s existing work with grassroots groups around NYC and the intersecting oppressions we have witnessed through our work with clients in these communities.
Some of the campaigns we’ve supported:
- 401K Divestment in the Prison Industrial Complex
- Abolish ICE
- Abolish MDC (Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, NYC)
- COVID-19 Policing Project
- #DefundNYPD
- National Expungement Week
- No New Jails NYC
- Marijuana Justice
If you have a relevant campaign or project that you would like us to work on, please contact HAPPEN@takerootjustice.org.
